Trick
Trick is the first volume in the World of Many Colors series by Stacey T. Hunt. The volume features Jesse Tynan, and takes place in the United States, New Jersey, during the spring of 2013. It was originally published in eBook format by Wordpainter Publishing on September 13, 2013. Synopsis Sixteen-year-old Jesse Tynan is an antisocial boy with a prosthetic leg. His simple, isolated way of living is altered forever when he's entranced by the mysterious and seemingly gentle Emberlee Whitmore. When she invites him to a Friday-night party in New Jersey, he hardly expects to witness the murder of a young girl--much less a murder committed by a strange boy with a glass eye and a ghastly overbite who goes by the name Ashton Blake. Then the body crumples to ashes. And everyone knows you can't call the police when there's nothing valuable to show that a girl died. Or was she even human? In no time Jesse's pulled into Ashton's world with a vengeance, when his grandmother gets captured by an otherworldly glowing-blue monster and Emberlee herself is the witch of the alternate universe Ashton comes from, where your subconsciousness takes form and fights monsters. Now trapped in this dark and insane world, Jesse has to find a way back to Earth so he can find his grandmother, while at the same time help Ashton find a way to stop Emberlee and wipe out the monsters. But there's something about Jesse and Ashton, something that Emberlee would kill for. Overview This volume consists of a total of 39 chapters. Beginning Summary The Opening of the book begins in the Otherworld with Ashton Blake being taken to the Shadow District Research Facility against his will for skyrunner research. He puts up a fight, but is inevitably taken away unconscious. Dr. Ivan, the head doctor in the facility, injects him with tagged Fiendorphin pathogens and waits for them to take effect so he can give him an antidote. But after several minutes, Ashton's unique immune system kicks in, and the pathogens disappear. After drawing another blood sample, the doctor moves him to another lab, and comes to talk to him in person, instead of over an intercom like before. Dr. Ivan tells him that he is actually immune to spawning skyrunners, and questions him about his childhood. Ashton decides to tell him the truth and says that he has no memory of anything before being adopted at age eleven. Dr. Ivan proceeds to explain his theory that if they remove Ashton's brain, they'll use it to develop a cure for all Others in the Otherworld so no one will ever spawn a skyrunner again. Ashton is released from the facility and returns home to consider the doctor's offer, and later agrees. A few months later, in the real-world on Earth, Jesse Tynan is sitting with his grade 10 science class at the end of the last day of school before a two-week spring-break vacation. While waiting for the bell, a cute and charming girl called Emberlee approaches him and invites him to go with her to a party. Jesse, used to being ignored and ignoring others, refuses, but Emberlee makes him feel tired and awed by her beauty, and persuades him to go. While at the party, Jesse watches an odd but interesting-looking boy, Ashton, bribe his way into the party, and later murder a girl in one of the bedrooms after becoming what Ashton describes as a skyrunner. Emberlee appears behind Jesse and hits him over the head with a chair, causing him to briefly loose consciousness. Ashton, recognizing the girl, escapes through a window. Jesse next awakens in the back seat of the car he used to drive Emberlee to the party. After asking what happened, Emberlee, while in the drivers seat taking him home, proceeds to tell him that he took some drugs that another girl offered him and fell down the stairs, blacking out. Jesse tells her tat he's certain that never happened, and asks about the boy they met, but she tells him that there was never any boy like that at the party. Jesse, though still suspicious, tiredly decides to forget the whole thing. When they arrive at Jesse's house, Emberlee kisses him goodbye on his doorstep. The following morning while trying to do his homework, Jesse recieves a call from Emberlee. He tells her that his grandmother wasn't very happy last night about the party, and using her car without permission. Emberlee decides against inviting him to another party, and instead asks him to go out on a date with her to get some coffee. Jesse agrees. Emberlee tells him that she'll head over to pick him up. Jesse's grandmother, Maloree, arrives after Jesse ends the call with Emberlee with several flattened moving boxes. Jesse asks her what she's doing, and she replies that the two of them will be moving away later that week. Jesse, enraged at the sudden decision and of not being told ahead of time, as well as the thought of leaving Emberlee, yells and starts fighting with her. Emberlee arrives not too long after, and Maloree is oddly stunned into silence at seeing her there. Emberlee awkwardly asks if Jesse's ready to go, and Jesse leaves with her immediately. Jesse tells her on the way to the Morning Joy Coffee shop about what happened with his gran, and Emberlee tries to make him feel better, suggesting that since her parents are away he could stay a little longer with her. Jesse refuses her offer, and goes to buy the coffee while Emberlee chooses a seat. Jesse is surprised to find Ashton working casually at the till, and demands he tells him about what he saw at the party the night before. Ashton fakes ignorance and jokes to cover his fibs, but finally agrees to meet him after his shift to tell him what he knows. Back at the table with Emberlee, Jesse is only half-listening to her, instead checking his phone for the time and ignoring his gran's messages that plead he come back home so they could talk, and that she was sorry. When Ashton leaves the shop, Jesse forgets about Emberlee and chases after him. Ashton proceeds to explain to him the concepts of Other selves, skyrunners, the Otherworld, and the witch and the tyrant that run the place. He also tells Jesse that he is originally from the Otherworld, and that after the witch figured out about how he was going to create a cure for Others to stop spawning skyrunners whenever they feel negativity, he was banned to Earth, and took refuge in his real-self's body, and that he needs Jesse in order to get back to the Otherworld. Ashton is interrupted when Jesse realizes that Emberlee has completely deserted the coffee shop, and not soon after receives a call from his grandmother for help. Jesse takes off ahead of Ashton and races back home, only to find that nearly every room in the house has been destroyed, and that his grandmother is trapped inside the belly of a dinosaur-like skyrunner, and the one that's controlling the beast is Emberlee, who is revealed to be the real-self of the Otherworld witch Ashton mentioned. It is also revealed that with her powers, Emberlee has been tricking everyone who looked at her to believe they were looking at a cute young girl instead of a grotesque old lady, and has also tricked Jesse into falling in love with her. Ashton formulates a plan for him and Jesse to split up; while he fights the witch, Jesse guides the skyrunner to the backyard pool and drown it, as the beast is crackling with electricity. Jesse manages to ride the beast and guide it out of the house to the backyard. However, at the last second, Jesse realizes that by destroying the beast, he could potentially harm his grandmother. This hesitation is enough for the beast to throw Jesse off of it. Jesse hits his head on the rail by the pool and falls underwater. Through the water, Jesse watches as Ashton blows a hole in the side of the house and kill the skyrunner in one sweeping motion, freeing Maloree and defeating Emberlee for the moment. Ashton dives into the pool after Jesse, who is slowly dying, and uses his powers to guide Jesse's departing soul into the body of his Other self, and follows him to the Otherworld. Now trapped in this dark and foreign dimension, Jesse must follow Ashton in an attempt to stop the witch, find a cure, protect his grandmother, and find a way back home, all while being able to see people's inner struggles up close, and get a better understanding of the world around him. Title and cover The book cover features a red-headed boy, representing Jesse, drowning underwater, referencing the scene in the beginning where Jesse nearly dies in his pool and Ashton takes his soul to his Other self's body in the Otherworld. The title of the book references the witch's mind tricks. It is also chosen to refer to the many times Jesse was lied to and tricked. Praise "...Trick really stands out... each and every character is unique and portrayed so differently, yet they complement each other and the story so well. The idea behind the skyrunners was also very well done." - GoodReads review "...Stacey's writing has matured incredibly since her Cascade Adventures days, and I'm happy to say I will most likely be reading the next book if I see it around.." - GoodReads review "...Giving the main character a prosthetic was a good choice, leading to quite a few twists on the usual themes." - GoodReads review External links *Trick at Stacey T. Hunt's blog *Trick at the World of Many Colors blog Category:A to Z Trick Category:Books